Most crops grow best in crumbly soil that roots can easily grow through and that allows in water and air. Soil organisms play an important role in the formation of a good soil structure.

As spring turns to summer and the soil heats up, fungi grow long filaments called hyphae that surround soil particles and hold them together in soil aggregates. Some bacteria produce sticky substances that also help bind soil together.

Many soil aggregates between the diameters of 1/1000 and 1/10 of an inch (the size of the period at the end of this sentence) are fecal pellets. Arthropods and earthworms consume soil, digest the bacteria, and excrete a clump of soil coated with secretions from the gut. As beetles and earthworms chew and bury plant residue and burrow through the soil, they aerate the soil and create nutrient-lined channels for roots and water to move through.

We can influence this process in the many ways that have been spoken of here ad nauseum. There is no magic bean. I simply cannot understand why this turns into a fire fight every time.